The Rugby World Cup has its first banned player -- not for what he did on the field, but for what he said off it.

His name is Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu, a Samoan midfielder who played his first test in 2005 and what may have been his last, against South Africa on Friday.

Born in Samoa, raised in Auckland, Sapolu is based in England where he plays for Gloucester.

But this afternoon the IRB suspended him from all rugby, after he failed to attend a hearing called to discuss his angry outbursts on Twitter about the Rugby World Cup.

The 30-year-old had called a ref a "racist", compared the treatement of Samoa and other countries at the Cup to slavery and much more.

The IRB called him into a formal hearing -- he didn't appear.

Speaking to Campbell Live this evening, Sapolu said he didn't even know it was on.


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